How can I return null or bool from a function

Question

I have this function:

public bool GetBoolSetting(Settings setting)
{
    return int.Parse(GetStringSetting(setting)) == 0 ? false : true;
}

There is a problem in that GetStringSetting(setting) can return null, "0" or "1". When it returns a null I get an exception.

Is it possible for me to make the GetBoolSetting function return a null if this happens?

Answer 1

You can change the type of your method to Nullable<bool> and continue to your one linear statement like below:

public bool? GetBoolSetting(Settings setting)
{
    return GetStringSetting(setting) != null ? 
           int.Parse(GetStringSetting(setting)) != 0 : new bool?();//Or default(bool?)
}

You can also use default(bool?) instead of new bool?() which returns the default value of Nullable bool that is null.